Saturday, September 01, 2007

Where Can I Go With That?

I finally got around to using a day of vacation. It's been about 10 months now that i've been working for Munns Manufacturing. I never wanted to ask for a day off, cause i felt bad leaving the other guys to work overtime. anyhow. i finally decided that the benefits outweighed my negative feelings of leaving the guys hanging.

So i go to my boss and ask how many days of vacation i had saved up, not having taken any days yet. 10 months of work. if you're in Germany you might be thinking something like 4 weeks. that would be acceptable. if you're from the states, you know that's ridiculous.

30 hours. that's right. just 3 of my normal 10 hour days. not a week or maybe even 2. i MIGHT come out of this whole year of work with a week of vacation. that, i might add, includes working mostly 50 hour weeks.

so what can you do in a week of vacation? sorry folks, but i'm not flying to Germany for a week. i'd rather quit work and make it a 2 month trip. a week is nuts. i'll probably just end up using a couple days to make some long weekends, then a super long weekend to go somewhere further away, like the beach or the mountains, or........ probably to lancaster.

why, you may ask, is this such a big deal? i find myself working and dreaming of what i could do with 5 weeks of vacation. why do we work so much and get so little vacation? why are our lives so overshadowed by this work junk? work so much that your vacation is you trying to get back the lost life/energy that was sucked out of you by work. yeah..... i'm exaggerating. :-) but it kinda does feel like that. between the driving, the unpacking, packing and driving, it feels like such a short time to be and enjoy. no 3 weeks........ more like 3 days.

I found this chart online, which got me thinking about this again. finland: 44 , Germany: 35 , USA: 25. ahhhhhhh, but may i point out that germany's 24 minimum paid vacation days are a definite. no ifs, ands or buts. the USA, however, has a cute little footnote thinger. we have no law that sets a minimum amount of paid vacation. so those 15 days that they're counting are an average for employees "with 10 years of service."

I'm enjoying my extended weekend, but can't ignore that little kick in the gut that reminds me what all this work isn't getting me. or....... i guess i'm not so worried about myself. i'll be ok. but my co-workers, working over time to make ends meet and to enjoy those few hours/days that they get to spend with their kids amidst it all, or waiting for friday to drive to their cabin to soak in every minute of escape that they've fought for. i wish they'd get to have a 5 or even 3 week vacation getaway with their families.

i know i'd see a difference in their eyes when they'd get back.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

yup, it's a messed up system we got. productivity would be much higher with more reasonable work weeks and vacation.

as a side note, i remember an unnamed shareholder at Fairfield Language Technologies commenting (in slightly derisive tone) "no wonder their economies are lagging" after seeing a page of mandatory paid vacation after a year of work for various countries. in the USA? 0. at FLT? um, just a few days after a full year. mostly i think she just wanted to make as much $$ of our lives as possible.